He sees life through a cracked chip (2)
He sees life through a
Twenty fourteen chip

Internal medicine
How bad English musician
Two Oh One Four descending
How bad are English musicians
He sees life through a cracked, cracked, cracked...ch-ch
The town medicine cracked mirror
How bad English musicians are there
He sees life through cracked
One sixteen welcome (3)
One sixteen mark welcome
RGDS the town menacing (4)
How bad English musician
How bad English musicians
Chetwynd! (5)

Two Oh One Four

Suffering away ay ay
Suffering away ay ay

Suffering away ay ay
Suffering away ay ay

Suffering away ay ay
Suffering away ay ay

Twenty Fourteen chip
Suffering away ay ay
Suffering away ay ay

He sees lies?
He sees life

Suffering away ay ay
Suffering
Suffering ay ay ay
Suffering

He sees life through the back of the blackheads at in front
He sees life through a broken chip
He sees life through a chip
He sees life a broken glass window
Chip!
Glass
Glass
He sees life through blah blah Oh One Four!

Two Oh One Four!
Back of...
Into the...
Suffering!

Twenty Fourteen chip
Twenty Fourteen rip
The town menacing
How bad are English musicians?
How bad are English musicians...
He sees life through a Two Oh One Four cracked chip

Notes

1. A studio version appeared in 2014 on Uurop V111-X11 Places in Sun & Winter, Son under the monicker "Auto (2014) Chip Replace." As with "Fibre Book Troll," previewed on a compilation album called Modoselektion Volume 3, no one then suspected that it would go on to change the world...

Joseph Mullaney has the following:

"In the UK a company called Autoglass used to (or still does?) run radio adverts for repairing chipped car windscreens. The catchphrase in their jingle is `Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace'."

And "chip" is a central word in "Gut of The Quantifier": "Life can be a downward chip," "Make the Kane Gang look like an Einstein chip." "He sees life through a cracked chip" here is somewhat reminiscent of the first formulation.

"Chip" may be an empty signifier which allows the lyricist to draw connections that otherwise would not be available to him. It is possible that it is meant to have a more determinate semantic content than this, but I do not have much of an idea about what that would be. Thus, [in the line "Life can be a downward chip"], "chip" could replace "spiral," "motion" or "trajectory," whereas none of these words would work at all in the phrase "Einstein chip," where "theory," "equation," "formula" or something of the sort would be more appropriate; even if we start to wander farther out looking for a noun that could go with "Einstein" (shirt? joke? hairdo? television appearance?), it is hard to arrive at anything that could follow "downward." Simon (below) suggests that "upward, downward chip" means that an implanted computer chip will, in the future, supplant drugs ("uppers" and "downers").

I have to admit that Simon's theory is my favorite, but I'm not sure how much it helps us here.

4. According to the Internet, "RGDS" means "regards" in its own language, although some wag claiming to be William James has posted the following definition on Urban Dictionary which I am confident has no direct bearing on song (indirect is a different matter, though!):

Rgds means rolling grenades down streets, it is the new way to say, "we want peace to the world and sustainable renewable energy along with an open, free, unmonitored, uncensored, unrestricted internet so that our future generations will accomplish more than we could dream of, that with the collective human knowledge at our finger tips, we will strive to do more than look at porn or pictures of cats with this power and that wealth inequality will be equalized just enough to eliminate poverty and starvation." Kind rgds...

5. Buy Kurious wonders whether "'Chetwynd' referred to horror writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes, but I guess he would say 'Chetwynd-Hayes' if true." Ronald Chetwyind-Hayes (1919-2001) was an author of ghost and horror stories, a genre of which MES has been known to be a fan--the names of authors of horror stories figure prominently in "Spectre vs. Rector." There is also a Chetwynd, British Columbia, so the enterprising sleuth has an embrarrassment of riches here...which I now bequeath you, dear reader. Bazhdaddy thinks it's "chipped wind." It's hard to be sure.

6. I'm quite unsure about the "Well, a dolly!" Anyway, Mike Smith has this to say:

"The 'Auto Chip' of the title, plus 'bad English musicians' could suggest the auto-tune system (digital device - a 'chip'), which corrects the shortcomings of "bad" musicians who sing or play off-key. The second-to-last line, 'What else you get for Christmas, boy?' could be likening the chip, in a denigrating way, to the status of a toy, such as is given to a child as a Christmas present."

More Information

Comments (10)

In the UK a company called Autoglass used to (or still does?) run radio adverts for repairing chipped car windscreens. The catchphrase in their jingle is `Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace'.

2.Mike Smith | 02/12/2015

The "Auto Chip" of the title, plus "bad English musicians" could suggest the auto-tune system (digital device - a "chip"), which corrects the shortcomings of "bad" musicians who sing or play off-key. The second-to-last line, "What else you get for Christmas, boy?" could be likening the chip, in a denigrating way, to the status of a toy, such as is given to a child as a Christmas present.

3.Wrayx8 | 03/12/2015

Nice one Mike! Sounds pretty on the nose to me.

4.Mike Smith | 05/02/2016

Upon further listening, reflection, etc, I'm now leaning toward a general theme of digital technology which we're seeing elsewhere on the album. "Quit iPhone", "Fibre Book Troll" being obvious, the chip could be a stand-in for all these things. Seeing life through a cracked chip: who doesn't know people who spend more time staring at the cracked screen of their mobile device than at the world around them? Auto-tune could be just another aspect of the theme.

5.policetruck | 10/08/2016

Sounds like "Well a dollie" at the end to me. Infants get dolls for gifts at Xmas time.

"What else do you get for Christmas, boy?"

"Well a dollie, well a dollie".

6.bzfgt | 25/08/2016

Crap, you might well be right, we keep hearing so many different things on this one...spoken, more or less a capella, and we still don't know. I'll listen again.

7.bzfgt | 25/08/2016

Actually that sounds right to me now, I am running with it, at least until someone gets mad at us.

8.Bazhdaddy | 22/09/2018

At 3.40 I think the "wanker" is a "welcome". As the bass riff changes, the song moves up two years; "One Sixteen, welcome/One Sixteen, Mark, welcome, RGDS the town menacing". One Sixteen = Jan 2016

To continue the automotive theme I think Chetwynd is a dead end - sounds to me more like a variation on the cracked windscreen theme - "chipped wind.!"